Mar 8, 2019 | Daily Film Scoring Bits, Orchestration
Perfect Fifth Double Stops on Strings There are several disagreeing statements in orchestration books about perfect fifth double stops on string instruments that don’t involve open strings. Some claim they are impossible and should be avoided while others say they are...
Mar 1, 2019 | Daily Film Scoring Bits, Orchestration
“Col Legno” on Strings A quite interesting sounding and more commonly used special playing technique on string instruments is the so called “col legno”, which translated means “with the wood”. Probably one of the most well known use of it is the beginning...
Feb 22, 2019 | Daily Film Scoring Bits, Orchestration
“Epic” Low Horns Recent years have shown a tendency in film music to write more often for brass in their very low register. Especially horns are often requested to play in their lowest octave. While excellent players in great numbers (speaking of at...
Feb 15, 2019 | Daily Film Scoring Bits, Orchestration
Highest Note in a Chord In well balanced orchestral chords consisting of several instrumental colours (e.g. a chord that is orchestrated in the woodwind section) the instrument on the highest note will dominate its colour impression. This means that even in a chord...
Feb 8, 2019 | Daily Film Scoring Bits, Orchestration
Doubling Woodwinds Woodwinds usually sound more brillant and characteristic when they’re playing solistically instead of doubling the same instruments in unison. For example 3 flutes playing a line in unison in generally sound thicker and slightly louder than a solo...
